Prayer for Janessa

In the grand scheme of things, I tend to think we are pretty lucky. Yes, Janessa was born with a cleft palate, but it can be fixed. I feel bad for her because of the pain it causes her ears and because when her food comes out of her nose, it is probably fairly uncomfortable but really...her problem can be fixed and therefore we are blessed.

Sometimes this causes me to not ask for prayer when maybe I should. If other people are struggling with much bigger things than why should I bother people with what is going on in our home. Well...enough of that...we could use some prayer!

2 weeks ago, Janessa was diagnosed with her 5th ear infection (this one a double one). They put her on an anti-biotic which she finished this past Friday and I hoped this would be her last one before her surgery to correct this problem once and for all. However, she didn't really seem to be better. She has still been tugging at her ears, yesterday she started coughing and last night she woke up crying a few times (usually she sleeps a solid 11 hours). So...off I carted her to the doctor today for what I thought was another ear infection. Only, it wasn't. Her ears are still congested and are constantly susceptible to infection but the doctor was more concerned with her cough. He said it sounds like RSV.

Great.

My mind immediately went back about 3 years ago where I stayed with Libby for a week at Strong Hosptial. She had RSV and was only 6 weeks old.

Libby Grace with RSV in February 2010

So after that 20 second panic attack, I came to my senses and realized that Janessa is older and it probably isn't going to go down the way it did with Libby. 

He continued to tell me that RSV gets worse until day 5 and that if she indeed has RSV, the cough can last up to 6 weeks

Great.

Her surgery is scheduled for exactly 3 weeks and 2 days from now. Apprently if she does have RSV and the cough does persist, her surgery may have to be rescheduled!

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

So....We would covet your prayers that:

a) Janessa does not have RSV, just a virus or soemthing else

or

b) If it is RSV, that it would resolve quickly and not effect her surgery date.

In the meantime. We will be keeping her with us at all times. No more nursery at church (sorry Nursery workers...I know she is fun!) I know that we can't hide from all germs. We could pick something up at the grocery store just as easily as other places but for now, we will just keep our baby girl with us until we can get through all of this fun! 

Thanks for your prayers...and for reading this long post!

Our Friends Need a Miracle...Please Pray

Our friends are going through a really difficult time post-surgery with their newly adopted sons. Please join me in prayer and visit her blog for more information...

Joy Is Strength

They are in need of some really big miracles right now but our God is greater and more able to do anything than we could ever imagine. These words come to mind.

Chris Tomlin — Our God (Is Greater) 

Water You turned into wine
Open the eyes of the blind
There's no one like You
None like You
Into the darkness You shining
Out of the ashes we rise
There's no one like You
None like You

Our God is greater, our God is stronger
God You are higher than any other
Our God is Healer, awesome and power
Our God, Our God...

Into the darkness you shining
Out of the ashes we Rise
There's no One like You
None like You.

Our God is greater, our God is stronger
God You are higher than any other
Our God is Healer, awesome and power
Our God, Our God...
r-god-is-greater-lyrics.html ]
And if Our God is for us, then who could ever stop us
And if our God is with us, then what can stand against?
And if Our God is for us, then who could ever stop us
And if our God is with us, then what can stand against?
What can stand against?

Our God is greater, our God is stronger
God You are higher than any other
Our God is Healer, awesome and power
Our God, Our God...
Our God is greater, our God is stronger
God You are higher than any other
Our God is Healer, awesome and power
Our God, Our God... 

Opportunity Knocks

I am linking up with "5 Minute Friday" and writing on opportunity today. The deal is that  you write for 5 minutes and don't look back or edit...and then just stop....so here goes!

I like this word "opportunity" for the new year. The truth is, I do feel like this year could be filled with great opportunities to accomplish things. Pretty soon, I will be taking a couple of classes. I have the chance to teach my children, like working with my oldest to read right now. My hubby and I have recently started an at home business that seems to be a GREAT opportunity and to be quite honest, I think our lives in general are filled with so many things we can take advantage of. 

But...most importantly, I hope that this year I take the opportunity to share with everyone and anyone, my love for Christ and how important it is to have a relationship with Him, our maker and creator. That is the opportunity that I don't want to waste one minute of. It's the only thing that matters and if we really love people, we should be taking every chance we can to share that with them. We cannot live in fear about such an important thing.

Regardless, an opportunity is just that. It is a chance. It isn't something that happens on its own, it is something that comes and you need to take it and do something with it before it passes. So...don't waste the opportunities that come your way!

Learning to Read

For part of our New Year, we have decided to really start teaching Keira to read. Mostly because she wants to. It also happens to be one of biggest fears about homeschooling. I have a great desire for my children to love reading  and to be strong readers. I know that I can't so much control whether they like it or not (especially with a husband who really doesn't love reading) but I can try!

So..she knows her letters and her letter sounds but at the recommendation of many others, I have decided to  use the resource "Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons". We read a lot. We write a lot. So...this is our next thing. Keira is very excited and altTeach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessonshough we are only on day 2 today, she seems to really like it in addition to her other preschool "work"!

No TV...huh?

I wish I had a picture of Keira's face last night when I told her that starting today we would not be watching any TV for a month...yes, you heard me a month. You would have thought that all of her toys just got thrown away on accident!

So, yes, we have decided to turn off the TV for a month in our home. We cannot control what goes on when we are visiting others and wouldn't even want to try to control that, but when we are home, we want it off for  a month.

So, this makes it sound like we waste a lot of time watching the tube and I assure you, we don't, however, my kids do watch a few approved shows almost every day. Sometimes they watch more than that (tisk tisk, I know) and sometimes they don't watch any. Truly this is going to be much harder on me than them, but still, it will be a sacrifice for everyone. I am still not sure how I will ever get to take a shower or cook dinner but I guess I will have to be creative...or dirty and hungry!

Why, you ask? Well, I would like to implement a system for earning TV time. My kids LOVE LOVE LOVE TV. I don't know why, but they do. So, I think that a "re-start" is in order. I just believe that this will be easier to accomplish if they haven't watched it all for a while rather than saying, "ok kids, today we are going to do things a bit different." They are going to have to think about what they really want to watch and I am hopeful that they will desire to watch it less. We'll see.

Really, we want less of this:

and more of this:

So...today marks day one of no TV...I'll let you know how it goes.

Happy New Year!

So...day 1 of 2013 is drawing to a close and I promised myself that I would write a blog post so I better get on that. .

2012 was a happy and sad year for many that I know. Our family welcomed Janessa Faith to our lives so of course that was a huge happy thing. In July, we found out that my brother and sister-in-law are expecting their 3rd child due this March. Libby successfully potty trained day and night in August. We went on a great family vacation to the Outer banks in September. On Thanksgiving, we found out that my sister is expecting her second child and we were just able to spend the last week and a half with the year celebrating the holidays with family and friends. Our family is growing by leaps and bounds and that really is such a huge blessing!

This year also came with many days of loss and grieving  My grandfather went to be with the Lord on June 5th. He really was the Patriarch of our family and we still miss him greatly. We know that he is in a better place, but still wish that he was here with us. Also, our church family lost so many loved ones, including our beloved Pastor, Jeff Fuhrman. He played a huge role in my spiritual walk and learning how to be a "grown up" in a church that I grew up in. Our church still feels a void but are so thankful that we have an amazing church family that has stuck together and even grown during this time. Also, in June, our dear friends lost their precious baby girl well into the third trimester of pregnancy. Such a loss that will never be forgotten.

So...while 2012 was filled with ups and downs, I am ready for this "fresh start" Really, not much has changed since yesterday, other than the fact that I will constantly write the wrong numbers for the date, but still...it is a new year with a clean slate. Nothing super bad or super great has happened yet to fill our memories.

So...do I make a resolution or not? Good question! I would love to say that I am going to blog every day, exercise all the time, eat perfectly, set a perfect example for my kids all the time and so on, but that just isn't  realistic. What I am going to say is that we are going to start a much more purpose filled life. On the top of this blog, I quote Philippians 4:8, "If anything is excellent or praiseworthy--think about such things." Well...that is what we want to do. I want to make this blog speak volumes on how we are praising God or loving God in everything that we do as a family. More importantly, I want it to be very evident to my children why we do or do NOT do certain things or say certain things.

I will have good days

I will have bad days

I will fail

but I will try try again and continue on. This is not something for 2013, this is something to live by.

So....here we go!